Sweden Trip for School

Hello Readers,

In 2019 when I was finishing up my schooling in Finland, I had the opportunity to go on a class trip to Piteå, Sweden. This was a school trip as we were tasked with a group project to design Tourism Services for the City. We went around for 2 days learning about the City and what they have to offer visitors as well as attended a presentation at the Town Square by Tourism Piteå. 

At top the Light House overlooking the Bay.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Piteå is located in the Northern Province of Sweden on the shore of the Bay of Bothnia. It is home to many islands and inlets which would make it a great destination in both winter and summer, however there tends to be more visitors in the summer months.  

We travelled by Bus and were able to stay one night in the hotel. I have included a video that one of my classmates created when the trip was over. This video really showcases the adventure and fun the group had on the trip during our many excursions and learning sessions. Video Credit: Thao Nguyen

The project was a lot of fun and as a group of 5 we created a product that Piteå could offer to tourists coming in winter. Our group was very close and got along very well, as you can see in the video, us having a lot of fun exploring with our teacher Teija. The final design project was presented over Zoom to the City as well as the presentations were sent to them so that they could potentially use the design in the future.

Going to school abroad lead to a lot of experiences for me. It allowed me to visit many countries and the opportunities the school gave us when it came to working with companies in the field was a great asset to our learning.

Thanks for reading... until next time. 

Opening of Christmas Season

Hello Readers,

Santa Claus. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

You can see the smile on my face that shows
my Christmas Spirit.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

It is now officially the opening of the Christmas Season. This happened last Saturday November 17th. If you are not from Rovaniemi or been to Rovaniemi at Christmas time I do suggest it.

Here is the link to the Opening of the Christmas Season 2018 Celebration - You can see me waving at the beginning (around the 12 minute mark)as my sister was home in Canada and able to see me on the live stream.The live stream is available each year, and they speak in both Finnish and English so anyone can enjoy it.

Me petting the one Husky they
had on a chain.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

There were free shuttles available from the city center that day and I took advantage of that. I do have a bus card but the friend I went with did not so these free shuttles saved about 7 euros in bus fairs. We took the earliest shuttle at 2pm us to Santa Claus Village. We wanted to go early because for that day there was free admission to the Husky Farm. You still had to pay for Husky sled tours but at least we got to see all the pup and even pet some of them.

When you go to Santa Claus Village it really gets you in the Christmas Spirit, even though there hasn't been any snow here at the Arctic Circle. Around 3:00pm the center starts playing some good Christmas music, and there is a reindeer brought out that you can pet and take pictures with as well (I did not do this, I have already taken a photo with a reindeer before and I thought best to allow the children to experience this). Around 3:30pm we found where we would want to stand since I knew my sister would be watching from Canada, and I wanted her to be able to see me. All the festivities started around 3:45pm and there were singing and dancing elves, and speeches before Santa came out and Officially Started the Season.  You can check out the entire event
in the link I have above.

This was an amazing experience, I couldn't stop smiling. It really brought out the kid in me and I wish I had of gone to this all of the years I have been here in Rovaniemi.

Thanks for reading....
Enjoy the beginning of the Holiday Season!

Santa Claus Parade

Hello Readers,

This photo is of me testing some
glasses at H&M. Really festive.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

On Saturday Nov. 10/2018 I attended the Santa Claus Parade in Rovaniemi, Finland. If you didn't already know Rovaniemi is the Official Home of Santa Claus. It started from the Town hall and finished in the city center or Lordi Square as it is known to the locals - named after the Finnish rock band, Lordi, which is from Rovaniemi.

I was a little disappointed by the parade, however, it was wet and rainy all day. The parade did not have many elves walking with Santa and the single Rudolph reindeer. When Santa arrived at the city square he was unaccompanied by the reindeer. The highlight was when a team of kindergarten children sang him a few Christmas songs. Yes, the songs were in Finnish but that didn't matter as you could see the joy on their faces while singing to the man himself. I have added a video of one of the songs to the Finland Photos Page located at the top.

This is the children singing the songs to Santa Claus.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

When the children were finished Santa took the stage and thanked everyone for coming out. He talked in both Finnish and English and asked the crowd if they thought they were on the naughty list or the nice list. There was also explanation that you could see him in the two malls that afternoon for a short chat and some pictures (we chose not to do that). It is very different then at home, as we have mall Santa's in almost every mall near by at Christmas Time. The difference is though that Rovaniemi being the home of Santa Claus, there is a Santa Claus Village just on the outskirts of the city.

I will be attending Santa Claus Village's official opening of the Christmas season this Saturday and I hope that I will not be disappointed. I think the atmosphere will be different because there will be more Christmassy things there - like trees, elves, presents etc. All of this would be better if it would snow as well. Here in the Arctic Circle we are still without snow. We are patiently awaiting the white blanket that will make it seem that Christmas is coming.We are already headed into the dark winter, as the "sun" (it has been cloudy and grey for almost a month, there has not been any sunshine) has been setting around 3pm and rising each morning around 9am. Our daylight will get shorter before I go home for Christmas, but with no snow it feels even darker.

I hope everyone reading this is getting into the holiday spirit, whether they celebrate Christmas or some other holiday.

Thanks for reading....
Bye for now.

Almost Christmas

Hello Readers,

The end of October is now here, that means we are so much closer to my favourite season. Christmas season will be here soon. I am so lucky to be able to start my season in Rovaniemi which is the home of Santa Claus. The official Christmas Season starts here on November 17, 2018. I am excited to attend this event at Santa Claus Village.

This is the Screenshot of the Christmas Countdown for
Hallmark Movies.
Photo Credit: http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/christmas/
new-movies-countdown-to-christmas-2018

According to Visit Rovaniemi's website the Event starts at 4pm, with the Grand Opening of The Christmas Season, at the central square of Santa Claus Village. The elves and local artists put on a festive concert that culminates in Santa Claus’ speech. The evening is rounded off with dancing to Christmassy disco tunes. The city is also offering Free Shuttle Bus Services from the city centre and I will definitely be taking advantage of that. I hope to be able to document this in a future blog post.

Christmas Movies are probably the biggest highlight for me. I usually look forward to ABC Spark/ABC Family's selection of movies - I could not find that list to include, I did find information that the channel switched names to Freeform - But there was only a list called Kickoff to Christmas which was for the month of November. I love the Hallmark Christmas Countdown because they come out with new films each year. It is another bonus that I love Romantic movies which is what I believe Hallmark specializes in. It is also a bonus that my dad likes these Hallmark movies and I watch them online in Finland while he watches in Canada and we compare our notes with each other about the movies.

I am also counting down the days until I get home for Christmas which as of Oct. 30/18 is 46 days (hehe). I am only a little excited, mainly because right now my sister is planning her Wedding next fall and I am not there to be in the middle of all the planning. I know she understands and I am still involved via Video Chat but it is not the same as being there helping her. When I am home, I hope to see many people but also get a lot of things checked off my sisters list for her wedding. I will be buying my Maid of Honour dress then as well. I can't wait to see all of my little munchkins. I miss them the most because they grow so much over a few months. I love Christmas at home, with all the festivities, the music and attending the movies. I want the house to be all ready and decorated by the time I get there on Dec. 15th. I already asked my mom when she plans to put the tree up and start the decorations but she isn't quite in the same spirits as me.

Bye for now...
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Back to School...

This photo is from First Year (2016). It is the Kemijoki River. It showcases fall quite well with the coloured trees.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Hello Readers,

I am currently back in Rovaniemi Finland, about to embark in my HOPEFULLY last year of studies. I am trying to take my 4th year classes as well as some 3rd year classes to finish my time here. I am trying to expedite the process because this past summer my sister got ENGAGED. I am so happy for her and I need to get things going here so that I am 100% available for her planning needs.

I have been back to Rovaniemi for a couple of weeks, I had jet-lag very bad this time. I had a hard time adjusting to the time difference, it took me about a week to get sleeping at the right time of day. I was excited to start some new classes and to gain more experience in destination planning. I think it was because of the KLM flight. I had never flown with KLM before this time, I few from Toronto to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Helsinki, finally Helsinki to Rovaniemi. The past 2 years, I flew with my parents and I didn't come directly to my destination, I did sightseeing instead and I think this helped the jet-lag because I kept busy and could sleep more on the flights (I wasn't worried about flying with my parents, but when traveling alone it can be stressful).

This is me at the Con. It was held in the same
building as the Moomin Museum in
Tampere. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

The first weekend here, I made plans to go to my friend Alex's house to see her family for one day, then travel to the south of Finland to Tampere for an Anime Con - Tracon. I am not particularly interested in Manga, Anime, Cosplay, or anything of the sort, I just wanted to go for the socialization and to say that I have been before. The day was exhausting, there were tons of people and we did a lot of walking, not to mention we took the bus so early in the morning that it wasn't even open yet, and then we booked a late train in case we wanted more time at the Con. This trip also got me out of the apartment before school started and allowed me to overcome my jet-lag. I also love visiting with Alex's parents. They do not speak the best English (though I am sure they understand way more then they let on) but she is like our personal translation speaker. I have learned a lot about Finland and customs from them, as they have asked me a ton of questions about Canada, to the point where they are excited to one day embark on a vacation to our vast country.

If i can not take the 4th year courses, it will be a little frustrating but out of my control because there are only a limited number of spots for students in the course, and the DPT 15 (year before me) have priority over the course. If this happens and I can not take the course, it means I will have to come back next fall to take these 2 courses, therefore making my sisters job more stressful in planning her wedding and potentially she will have to choose another date then what she originally wants.

Over the summer I said there would be more posts but it got very hectic at my summer job and the summer flew by too quickly. I have a few posts written as drafts however, the photos I need are in Canada. Maybe I can get them over Christmas and get these posts done in Spring.

Stay tuned for more Arctic Adventures....
Bye for now.

Mayhem Event at Ounasvaara Ski Hill

This rider wasn't even a competitor, he started off all the snowmobile heats, they called him the crazy Finn.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Hello Readers,


On April 21st I went to a Mayhem Event at the Ounasvaara Ski Hill here in Rovaniemi. This was a free event that was open to the public at the Ski Hill. I had received an email to my school email about this event that included a link to the website (which I have linked above) that has an amazing video about what this event looks like.

They had to go uphill to the rest of the course.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

This year the Mayhem event happened at 4 different locations across 4 different weekends, with the 3 earlier ones Olos, Luosto, and Ounasvaara leading up to the main attraction at Ylläs. This event is for snowmobiles and motocross motorcycles that have a track from the bottom of the hill to the top with some ramps and challenging light snow to get through. 

This Video is of the crowd favourite (the guy who got the most air) and also the guy who got the fastest heat of the day.

I thought this was an interesting event that you don't get the chance to see very often. I was excited to get the chance to see some snowmobiles going off some jumps and getting some air. The fastest snowmobile of the day made it to the top in 33seconds while some others took about a minute. The fastest rider was flying through the course, and got mega air when he went off the jump near the top of the hill. All of the spectators were oohing and aahing at this particular riders run. 

View of the Riders getting ready and the pit area.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Some of the motocross motorcycle riders got stuck in the snowy section. It had been slightly warm this past week, so I thought it was melting snow, but later found out they put it there as an obstacle for the riders. While watching this part of the event it was like watching a 3year old shuffle their bike down the road instead of riding it, but they would make it through and continue through the course. 

Rider cutting through the snow on his bike.
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

This was so cool, I really enjoyed going through my photos and selecting the best ones, that showcase the riders doing the jumps.


Bye for now...

Nörds Ice Hockey

Hey Readers,

Alex and I at the Arena Photo Credit: Aleksina Seppä

Yesterday, April 7, 2018, I was looking for something to do. I checked the Visit Rovaniemi website and I found out that there was a Ice Hockey tournament at Lappi Areena for the weekend. It was called Nörds on Ice 2018. A free event to attend but the level of hockey was not obvious. I read that it was just forbidden to be a player in the 3-division and upper tiers of the Finnish Hockey Leagues.


The tournament was a two day event that started Friday Night (which I did not attend, as I did not know about it), I attended some of the games in the afternoon on Saturday. The games were 45 minutes long, and at the end players of the game were announced. There was a no slap-shots and body-checks rule on the tournament, which made the talent of the players shine through. A few of the teams were from Rovaniemi while others were from Helsinki and Oulu.

HockIt Beta vs Fortinet
HockIt from Rovaniemi Won 5-1
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

In the end the defending champions HC Tieto from Oulu won the tournament again. This did not surprise me since the earlier game of theirs I watched they won against one of the Rovaniemi HockIt teams 13-2. HC Tieto was a team of only 11 players while other teams had 15-20 players. With only 11 players that allowed them two full lines and a goalie, not a lot of time for rest between shifts but their endurance for the 45minutes allowed them to dominate the tournament.

I was happy to be able to watch this, though there weren't a lot of spectators at the arena (I believe lack of advertising was the problem). I hope to keep my eyes peeled for more things like this here in the city. It was a afternoon of quick and eventful games.

Stay tuned for another blog coming soon as Saturday April 14th I will be going to Ranua Zoo. I am hoping to see the polar bear and its baby from last year (won't be much of a baby now). It was the second baby polar bear born in a Zoo in Finland that has survived.

Bye for now...

Poro Cup 2018 - Reindeer Cup 2018

Ticket to the Poro Cup...It cost 5euro to Enter - Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Readers,

Alex and I at the Entrance
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

On Sunday February 25th, I attended the Poro Cup in Rovaniemi. Poro is Finnish for Reindeer. I was going to attend this last year however, it is about 5km outside of the city and there is no city buses that go there. This year, there was a committee that planned to have buses from the city center for free for anyone who wanted to attend. I took this chance to attend. My friend and I met in the city and took the bus. Even though she is Finnish she has never been to this kind of race before. It is very unique to Lapland.  

The Reindeer race consists of 4 racers on ski's that are pulled behind the reindeer. They have to go around the track which is 197.5 meters in length. I have included a short video of the racers from the start and when they zoomed past me.

 

When the races were over we waited for the bus to take us back to the city center. This bus service really made it possible to travel to the race track and witness this type of races. To me it is similar to that of horse racing around a track and there were even places you could bet on the winning reindeer/rider.

This was a very unique experience because I have not experienced this before. I did however, attend a shorter type of race in the city center of Rovaniemi last year. It was a practice race for competitors that had to race from the river to the center of the downtown and only two racers at a time.

If you get the chance to come to Northern Finland (Lapland) in winter, I hope that you can try and attend one of the Poro Cup races they have in the 6 Different Cities (Nuoritta, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo, Salla, Kuninkuusajot Inari, and Äkäslompolo).

Thanks for Reading...

All Adventures Must End

Hello Readers,

February 15th was the day I left Kempten, Germany and head back to Rovaniemi, Finland. I was bittersweet about leaving because I met a lot of nice people from all over the world (I now have connections to Hungary, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, USA, South Korea, and India to name a few), but I was also excited to get back to my friends that I haven't seen since May of last year.

Last Trip to the City Center of Kempten. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

I haven't written a post in about a month because when I arrived back to Kempten after Christmas we had 2 weeks of classes and then exams began. I was just in my apartment studying for the exams because in Germany the exam is worth 100% of the mark, there are no assignment marks or anything, so studying for the exams was very important to achieve the grades.

Last View of the Mountains from the Train. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Prior to leaving I had a lot of tying up loose ends like closing my German Bank account, cleaning my apartment, preparing my luggage and saying goodbye to everyone. There were a few things I didn't do while I was here, like visit a few people I wanted to see while I was in the area but I just ran out of time and the 5 months just flew right by. I did get to meet up with my exchange student from High School who I hadn't seen for 12 years, I got to go to Italy, I went home for Christmas, and I got to explore much of the Allgäu region. That to me means that it was successful, just being here and meeting all of the generous people and exploring would have been enough experience for me.

Delicious but Expensive Hamburger at Helsinki Airport. Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

I will met with my Teacher Tutor on Monday February 19th to discuss my progress for school, since I was planning to arrive later into the semester. This was known before I left for exchange because in Finland the School Terms are End of August to Just Before Christmas, then January until Beginning of May and in Germany it goes from Beginning of October to Middle of February, then Middle of March to End of July. However, I only have two courses to take over the course of the term and they start on March 12, so currently I am enjoying my study week at my friends house.

Reminiscing about Venice with these lovely girls from South Korea. Photo Credit: So Young Lee

I will be posting again this week about when I attended a Reindeer Race last week. Stay tuned...

Bye for now...